Historical Markers in Jackson County, Ohio updated Feb. 2, 2011

Major John James (1772-1854) established James Cemetery in 1828 on and around a Native American mound that is the only significant ancient mound remaining in the city of Jackson. The mound is about 70 feet in diameter and nearly six feet tall. In the late 1800s, this mound comprised one point of three ancient mound groups forming a triangular configuration along East Broadway Street, formerly known as James Street. One group was a few hundred feet northeast of here on the Watson farm and a second was just to the northwest on the Warnicke farm. These mounds were built by the Hopewell Culture, prominent in southern Ohio from about 100 BC to 400 AD. Major James, his wife, and several immediate family members are buried on the mound including Jackson County pioneers Andrew Long, Daniel Hoffman, and David Mitchell.

Located at James Cemetery East Broadway St., Jackson, Ohio

 John James arrived in Marietta in 1788 with his parents and siblings, some of the first settlers of the Nortwest Territory.  His father was a member of Rufus Putman's Ohio Company and the family lived in a blockhouse near Belpre.  In 1791 his brother William was one of twelve settlers killed at the Big Bottom Massacre, a tragedy than touched off the Indian Wars.  During that time, the James family retreated to what became Blennerhassett Island in the Ohio river, where they build another blockhouse.  Later bought by Harman Blennerhassett who built a mansion nearby in 1798.  Major James became a renowned Indian scout and explored what would become Jackson County. He settled herein 1807 and a prominent salt boiler became for a time the "proprietor" of the Salt Licks.  He went on to become an early Ohio legislator and the first treasure of Jackson County.

Located at James Cemetery East Broadway St., Jackson, Ohio
James Cemetery East Broadway St., Jackson, Ohio

James Cemetery East Broadway St., Jackson, Ohio

 John Wesley Powel Memorial Building

John Wesley Powell Memorial Building 
Main Street Jackson
Morgan's Raiders

226 E. Main Street Jackson, OH

 

 John Wesley Powell (1834-1902)"Scientist and explorer of the American West, John Wesley Powell moved from New York to Jackson with his family in 1838 and lived here until 1846. He developed an early interest in geology from his tutor "Big" George Crookham, a Jackson salt boiler, educator, and abolitionist. Powell served in the Union Army during the Civil War and lost his right arm at Shiloh in 1862. Later he became professor of geology at Illinois Wesleyan University. In 1869, he led a nine-man expedition in the first exploration of the entire length of the Colorado River, providing the first scientific description of the Grand Canyon. Subsequently Powell helped found the U.S. Geological Survey and served as its director from 1881 to 1894

226 E. Main Street Jackson, OH

 
The Scioto Salt Works Side A : The Scioto Salts Licks, located in and around Jackson, is an area where naturally occurring salt water, known as brine, flowed to the surface as a salt-water spring. It is known that the spring existed since the Pleistocene Ice Age because numerous bones, probably including those of mammoth and ground sloth, were excavated there. Native Americans obtained salt here for at least 8,000 years and did so until 1795 when the Treaty of Greenville separated the Native American and European populations. Early pioneer settlers utilized the licks in the second half of the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries, constructing salt furnaces that extended for four miles up and down Salt Lick Creek. Salt was a precious and necessary commodity, and the early settlers in the area profited from its trade

Main Street Jackson, Ohio

 

 The Scioto Salt Works Side B : The Scioto Salt Works Joseph Conklin from Mason County, Kentucky, who came to this area in 1795, is credited with being the first American to establish a salt operation at the Scioto Salt Licks. Conklin was a squatter and did not own the land. In 1803, soon after Ohio became a state, the new legislature passed an act regulating salt works, thereby forbidding the state from selling salt lands. Therefore Conklin and others who followed leased the land for their salt operations. Salt production reached its peak between 1808-1810 with hundreds of men producing 62,000 bushels annually. Richer and more cheaply produced salt brine was discovered in what is now West Virginia. Wells sunk to reach stronger brine here proved unsuccessful. In 1826, a salt agents legislative report stated, The making of salt at the Scioto Salt Works has been entirely abandoned.

Main Street Jackson, Ohio
The first commercial apple orchards were established in Jackson County in the late nineteenth century, although legend has it that Johnny Appleseed planted the first apple trees here around 1800.  By1930, there were approximately fifty orchards in ten of the county's twelve townships.  Twenty years later, Jackson County ranked second in Ohio in apple production.  The earl 1950s were the high water mark of apple growing in Jackson County.  In 1950, growers harvested more them 285,000 bushels from 70,200 trees.  By 1959, 25,400 trees yielded 98,300 bushels, but the industry still employed 500 people and was worth $1,000,000 annually.  Apple cultivation began to decline in the mid-1960s in part because many families who operated commercial orchards left the business.  At the start of the twenty-first century only one commercial apple orchard remained in Jackson County.

Main Street Jackson, Ohio
 The Jackson County Chamber of Commerce conceived the Jackson County Apple Festival in the spring of 1937 and the first one was held that year, from October 6-9.  The purpose of the festival according to its founders, were to celebrate one of Jackson County's leading industries, apple cultivation, as well as bring together citizens of the county and offer and opportunity for former residents to return to the area for visits.  In addition to apples, the first festival included prizes for vegetables, grains, and flowers, and also a baby and pet parade.  The crowning of an apple festival queen and court was a highlight of the first festival and became a festival tradition.  In 1959, the Jackson Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees) joined with the Chamber to co-sponsor the event.  Despite the decline in commercial apple growing tin the county, the festival remains a popular event under of the leadership of the Jaycees.

Main Street Jackson, Ohio

 

Trail plunging Herds of Buffalo seeking salt licks and grazing land wore trails through the Ohio Country when it was an Indian no man's land. Later Indians found the same trails suitable for their needs. The Tawny paths were highways as well as highest ways. Indians found ridges and summits superior to Valleys for trails because they were drier, wind-swept of snow, never clogged by flood debris and safer.
Main Street Jackson, OH
 The Kanawha Trail here Shawnee warriors intent on raiding Virginia frontier settlements, passed on the Kanawha trail. Fur traders used this route for their pelt-laden pack trains. Colonel Andrew Lewis led his mauled but victorious militia over the trace in 1774. The trail extended north from Kanawha River Valley, across the Gallipolis flats through the present towns of Rio Grande, Centerville, Rempel, Jackson, and Kingston to Circleville and the famous Scioto Trail.

Main Street Jackson
Side A : "Buckeye Furnace"
One of 69 charcoal iron furnaces in the famous Hanging Rock Iron Region. Extending more than 100 miles, from Logan, Ohio, to Mt. Savage, Kentucky, this area contained all materials necessary to produce high grade iron. The industry flourished for over fifty years in the mid-nineteenth century, during which time the area was one of the leading iron producing centers of the world. The charcoal iron industry was an important factor in the development of southern Ohio, and the romance of the Hanging Rock Iron Region forms a brilliant chapter in the industrial history of the Buckeye State.

2 miles South of SR 124 on Buckeye Furnace Rd.

 

 Founded by a group of immigrant Welsh businessman in 1853, Jefferson Furnace was a noted charcoal furnace in the Hanging Rock region of southern Ohio. The iron produced here was well regarded and used at the United States Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). Local tradition holds that during the Civil War, iron from Jefferson Furnace was also used on the Union ironclad U.S.S. Monitor. Jefferson Furnace was one of the last operating charcoal furnaces in Ohio when it closed in 1916.
Side A & B

Lake Jackson State Park, R.D. 2

 
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